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Happy Retirement, Betty!

Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest active ranger in the National Park Service at age 100, retired today after a remarkable career. Learn more: https://t.co/sUOb3R5ZFQ

📸Betty Reid Soskin @RosieRiveterNPS pic.twitter.com/u1vDWqqwwA

— National Park Service (@NatlParkService) March 31, 2022

By a 232 to 193, the House passed legislation that would cap the monthly out-of-pocket cost for a supply of insulin at $35, a move that would significantly cut the cost for the vulnerable uninsured, ABC News reports.

Drug makers and insurance companies, of course, objected to the measure because they want the ability to charge an infinite amount of money for a life saving drug whose supply they control; that’s not how they described it, though.

“No amount of spin by the insurance industry changes the fact that they determine what patients pay at the pharmacy,” Brian Newell, a spokesperson for PhRMA, drugmakers’ leading lobbying group, told POLITICO.  “It’s outrageous that insurance companies are forcing patients to pay more for medicines than what insurance companies pay.”

Just one day after the prosecutors wrapped up their three week presentation, the lawyers for the four defendants rested their case in the trial of four men accused of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the Associated Press reports.

Daniel Harris was the only one of the four to take the stand, wrapped up a day and a half of defense testimony by repeatedly claiming “absolutely not” when asked if he planned to kidnap Whitmer, whom conservatives targeted because of restrictions put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Harris is charged with Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., and Brandon Caserta in a plot to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan and trying her, which would lead to her execution.

There was this one morning back in January 2019. I was sitting at my usual spot in a Starbucks on 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, working on a Ruby on Rails application that would check the size of PDFs uploaded by clients at a law practice in Florida to make sure they were under 5MB. I knew some of the other regulars there, had a few friends among them, but that place was my “office” just as Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Panera, Whole Foods, and other chains’ locations are for millions of other independent workers who take advantage of free wifi – or did before the Coronavirus pandemic fucked things up for that non-sector.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced during his nightly televised address that he fired two military generals for being “antiheroes” disloyal to Ukraine, the Washington Post reports.

Many details of the statement are unclear:  Who the generals were?  What their offenses were and how were they uncovered?  What will their fate be?

The FEC has fined Hillary Clinton for the corrupt Steele dossier.

Nope, that’s not enough.

LOCK HER UP.

— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) March 31, 2022

One possible reason that the White House phone logs from January 6th were incomplete may be because Donald Trump’s personal secretary had taken the morning off that day and did not arrive at the White House until the afternoon, Axios reports.

Molly Michael, the White House executive assistant who was never far from Trump in the White House, would keep handwritten records of phone calls Trump made as he dawdled around the White House.  At times, Trump would use his cell phone, while at other times, he would have calls placed to or from aides’ phones.  Sometimes he would grab the phones from members of his Secret Service protection detail.

Without Michael there, however, it appears no one was taking the official record, or someone opted to destroy whatever records were being taken.  Michael’s morning absence does not explain, however, why calls were not recorded until around 7 p.m.

According to a daily update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, the Russian military is redeploying troops from Georgia to join the fight in Ukraine, another sign that Russia’s military efforts are faltering.  The 1,200-2,000 troops will be split into three combat units.

“It is highly unlikely that Russia planned to generate reinforcements in this manner, and it is indicative of the unexpected losses it has sustained during the invasion,” the notice states.

Never let it be said Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis don’t stand up for felons, so much so that he’s taking the stage with UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal during a fundraiser. Masvidal, who boasts about having a world-class sucker punch, was arrested last week after striking another UFC fighter when they met on the street.

Scientists have finished a jigsaw puzzle more than two decades in the making.  Twenty years after the first map of the human genome was released, geneticists have filled in the gaps, creating the the first complete blueprint, CBS News reports.

Published Thursday in the journal Science, the international effort finished the final piece of the puzzle, about eight percent of the genome.

“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”

Pro-democracy lawyer Marc Elias’s string of courtroom victories against GOP gerrymandering is frustrating the absolute shit out of National Republican Congressional Committee Tom Emmer, the Washington Examiner reports. “They’ve violated their own law. And by the way, this bottom feeder Mark Elias keeps filing suits everywhere. I hope people start writing about the fact that he does many of those lawsuits just to raise money. They’re just fundraising mechanisms. And if you want to talk about lawsuits, take a look at what just happened in Maryland, where the Supreme Court of Maryland said unabashedly that Democrats unconstitutionally gerrymandered the districts in their favor and therefore threw the map out last week,” shrieked Emmer, as if personally profiting off a political party’s operations is only a bad thing when it’s a Jewish Democrat doing it.

Actually that’s probably what it is. Since Elias is Jewish and knows how to work the courts to make the electoral playing field more even for Democrats, he’s basically the next Soros to Republicans needing a tenacious tribesman to blame for their failures. Ten years from now, on whatever mainstream media websites that still allow comments it’ll be “MARC ELIAS… DRINK!” or “I hate that dirty elite upscale liberal globalist who controls the media. Look at his shiny golden metal thing with nine candles on it and his little liberal dome hat going to his special church with the Sheriff’s star on the glass. That guy’s just like Marc Elias…” and then “Oh BTW we’re so pro-Israel.”

Take this as another example of, it doesn’t pay to work for Donald Trump.  The former president informed his White House photographer that he will not let her publish a book of pictures from the White House unless he gets a cut, the New York Times reports.

Worse yet, Trump has used the works of his chief White House photographer, Shealah Craighead, in his coffee table book, which he profits off of, putting the photographs in a questionable legal status that may prevent her from using them herself.

Since at least the Reagan Administration, White House photographers have published books of their images along with recollections or details of the moment.  Every president since Reagan has contributed a forward or prelude to the books as an endorsement of the photographer and the project.

President Joe Biden appointed more than a dozen people to the President’s advisory board for historically Black colleges and universities today as his administration provided $2.7 billion to HBCUs across the country, CNN reports.

Paul, a professional basketball player, and Henson, an actress, will join United Airlines President Brett Hart and the presidents of HBCUs Alabama State University, Virginia State University, Norfolk State University in Virginia, Dillard University in New Orleans and Prairie View A&M University in Texas on the 18-person board.

Tony Allen, the president of Delaware State University, and Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover, serve as the chair and vice chair of the board, respectively.  The board will maintain some carry-over members from the previous administration.

Russian soldiers are refusing to obey orders, sabotaging their own equipment and practicing general insubordination–even in one case sho0ting down a Russian aircraft–as morale sinks among the troops who are poorly equipped and fed, the Washington Post reports.

Speaking at the Australian National University, UK head of Britain’s signals intelligence agency, Jeremy (don’t call me Ian) Fleming said the actions of the Russian troops reflect a general aversion to fight in Ukraine as casualties mount among Russian forces.

“It’s clear [Putin] misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people,” Fleming said. “He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanize. He underplayed the economic consequences of the sanctions regime. He overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory.”

It’s also March 31st, the date by which Trump Media and Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes said Truth Social would be fully functioning “at the latest”. The feed can’t even fucking load new posts when you pull down on it, you need to quit out of the app and reload it to get new “Truths”, a pretty standard feature for a Twitter knockoff that even GETTR managed to make happen. How is it that a deadbeat dad like Jason Miller can manage to launch a serviceable social media platform while his former boss, a supposed billionaire former President of the United States cannot?

The Freedum Convoy is over.  The truckers and hangers-on have abandoned their shanty town in a Hagerstown, Maryland after spending weeks protesting something that doesn’t exist and spending thousands of dollars on fuel in a performative temper tantrum.

The only thing the truckers accomplished–besides being ridiculed by passers-by and stifled by a single bicyclist–is entertaining Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) with rides in big trucks.

More than a dozen students, parents, educators and advocates have filed a lawsuit against Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to repeal the state’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law signed with great fanfare by DeSantis Wednesday, NBC News reports.

The poorly-crafted law bars educators “from [conducting] classroom instruction … on sexual orientation or gender identity” in “kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.”  Critics note that the law, as written, prevents educators from discussing their spouses or addressing issues and questions regarding students who have same-sex parents.  It also prevents school staff including counselors from helping students cope with their own or their families’ concerns with an LGBTQ child or parent.

“With the passage of HB 1557, Florida has not only taken a giant step backwards, but it has done so at the expense of our children, the most vulnerable members of society,” Roberta Kaplan, a founding partner of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, said in a statement relating to the 80-page complaint. “It is hard to imagine anything more offensive to our constitutional system than treating one group of school kids as second class based solely on who they are or who their parents are. This law cannot be allowed to stand.”

Five dead fetuses were found during a DC Metro police raid on the Capitol Hill-area home of far right anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy on Thursday, WUSA 9’s Bruce Leshan reports. Handy, who along with eight others were indicted Wednesday on federal charges stemming from an October 2020 “invasion” of a DC reproductive health care clinic. Why this sick fucking freak had dead fetuses in her home or how she managed to acquire them is unknown at this time.

This comes after posting two “truths”:  one commenting unfavorably on a post by Ewic Trump talking about Trump Winery making carbonated wine coolers, and other on a post by Junior talking about integrity to which I replied, “Why start now?”

Saccharinely cutesy Congress critter and serial diner poisoner Lauren Boebert (Q-Colo) takes to the floor of the House to bring up a catchphrase from a losing/loser Republican vice presidential candidate from two decades ago to promote the misconception that President Biden is preventing oil companies from drilling in the United States.

In fact, 9,000 unused drilling licenses–accounting for roughly 9% of all licenses in the United States–sit unused in oil companies’ portfolios, permitted and ready to go.  Boebert never addresses why the oil companies have not leveraged these licenses, nor does she address the windfall profits the oil companies receive by keeping oil prices artificially elevated.